Look, I don’t really know what I’m talking about. I was in your position in 1991, and I remember it feeling daunting then. I have no real idea what it’s like to be a new grad in Australia in 2016/2017, and don’t have any detailed understanding of Graduate RN hiring processes around the country. With that disclaimer out of the way, here’s my 2 cents worth:

1. Nurses graduate in packs, but retire one by one. Today there are about 8000 freshly minted Australian RNs wondering if they’re going to get a gig. I don’t know how many of existing RNs are on the verge of retirement, but the demographic info in the table above would suggest at least 8000 will retire within the next year. Have you read the small print in the ‘Modelling Results’ chart above? The last sentence reads, “The major contributing factor to this result is that workforce exits exceed new entrants from 2016 onwards.” [page 37] Be patient. The jobs will become available.

2. If it’s practical to chase the work (ie: go rural/remote) do so. You’ll pick-up some deadly skills, and will be a better future employment prospect than someone who hasn’t worked as a RN.

3. Have you heard the cliché re not waiting for Mr/s Right, and being comfortable with Mr/s Right-Now? Same with your first few RN jobs: anything will do to get your foot in the door. Don’t knock back an unappealing gig. Quitting is quicker/easier than applying.

4. You know that other cliché “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”?
It’s not quite accurate.
It’s who you ARE, and who knows it.
If you’re well suited to a particular speciality/hospital/ward make sure that it’s not a secret. Make sure you’re friendly with all staff, but be especially sure that the senior staff (the people with their hands on the levers) know that you’re an asset. If they know you’ll make their workplace better, they’ll be keen to grab you when the funding/positions allow.

5. This one is the important one. It’s REALLY disheartening to spend 3+ years working towards something, and then find out that that something isn’t there where you expected it to be.
The fragile self-confidence of a novice RN isn’t geared-up for a kick in guts like that.
It’s not just a disappointment, it’s an injury to the ego.
Be kind to yourself.
Don’t spend all your money at Dan Murphy’s.
Do fun stuff despite feeling crap.
The data tells us that there are RN gigs in the pipeline. Do whatever it takes to be sure that you’re ready when your opportunity arrives.

6. Expect to experience grief emotions. You probably remember the Kübler-Ross 5 stages thing, as a quick reminder: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Anger and depression are uncomfortable, but very understandable, emotions. Find a safe way to express them (pro-tip: resist the temptation to spray paint swear words on your university or local hospitals).

7. On bad days, have another look at the chart at the top of the page. Australia’s health system needs you!

8. Find things that help you stay optimistic. Music works for me. Just in case it works for you too, here’s a song of determination and defiance. Turn it up!

On top of that, while they’re going about their business and busyness, ward-based nurses are interrupted10 times an hour [source]. Yep, every 6 minutes there’s something or somebody distracting us from our tasks and thoughts. Dangerously disorderly much? Hopefully that doesn’t happen to neurosurgeons, commercial airline pilots, tattoo artists or Batman.
Especially Batman.

Pro-Tip: most of us can not do this at work. Only respond to distractions with face-slapping if you are Batman.

So, here’s the idea: if you’re going to do hand hygiene dozens of times a day anyway, don’t just do it for your patients: do it for yourself too. We’re not cold callous reptilian clinicians, we’re educated warm-blooded mammals who do emotional labour. We need to nurture ourselves if we are to safely continue to nurture others.

Feel the product texture and temperature. The rub is cooler than the air. The rub is cooler than my fingers. It feels nice.

Start with cleaning. The first half of my hand hygiene routine is about rubbing stuff off. Let the stuff I want to get rid of float away.

Move on to restoration, healing. The second half of my hand hygiene routine is about rubbing in resilience and health. Let the stuff that sustains me seep into my skin.

Check in on the breathing. The slower and deeper the better. If the breathing or the brain are running too fast, slow down and repeat steps 5 and 6.

There’s no rush. Slowly scan the surroundings. With any luck someone from infection control is watching.

Smile.

Breathing slowly, its time let the air rinse off the residue.

One more slow breath. Its time to get back to work.

Mindful Minute (The 60-Second Handwash Version)

Step towards the sink with intent. This is my mindful minute. I’m taking a brief break.

Let the water flow.

Feel the water flowing over both hands. The water’s warmer than the air. The water’s warmer than my fingers. It feels nice.

Add soap. It’s slippery. Frictionless fingers feel fine.

Start with cleaning. The first half of your hand hygiene routine is about washing stuff away. Let the stuff you need to get rid of flow down the drain. Let it flow away.

Move on to restoration, healing. The second half of my hand hygiene routine is about rubbing in resilience and health. Let the stuff that sustains me seep into my skin.

Check in on the breathing. The slower and deeper the better. If the breathing or the brain are running too fast, slow down and repeat steps 5 and 6.

There’s no rush. Slowly scan the surroundings. With any luck someone from infection control is watching.

Smile.

Breathing slowly, its time rinse both hands.

Breathing slowly, its time to thoroughly dry both hands together.

Throw the towel in the bin.

One more slow breath. Its time to get back to work.

Clean hands save lives. Clear heads save lives too!

Acknowledgements & Context

This is not my original idea. I first stumbled across the idea of combining hand hygiene with head hygiene via Ian Miller‘s November 2013 blog post “mindfulness during handwashing”: http://thenursepath.com/2013/11/18/mindfulnurse-day-8/. I’ve been using the idea myself and suggesting it to colleagues and students ever since. When I left the clinical environment for a few months, I found myself really missing intentionally punctuating my day with mindful moments. Since returning to clinical practice I’ve come to appreciate the strategy even more than I did when I first started using it 3 years ago.

So why am I blogging about it too? Why now? Well, on Monday I attended the Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control 2016 conference to chat about Twitter [link to that presentation here. Also, check-out the #ACIPC16 hashtag here and here]. Luckily I was there for the opening plenary sessions, and was pleasantly surprised at the emotional/psychological literacy that was being displayed and advocated for. The opening presentations by Peter Collignon, Mary Dixon Woods and Didier Pittet all went to some lengths to emphasise the importance of emotional intelligence, constructive communication and building relationships. It was really impressive stuff; giving the hand hygiene and mindful moments idea a remix is my way to give recognition/thanks to the #ACIPC16 conference delegates and organisers.

]]>https://meta4rn.com/2016/11/26/hygiene/feed/3meta4rnbatmanposter1poster2How to win friends and influence people: https://twitter.com/emrsa15/status/8004952926425088015mindfulmomentsTwitter is a Vector (my #ACIPC16 presentation)https://meta4rn.com/2016/11/18/acipc16/
https://meta4rn.com/2016/11/18/acipc16/#respondFri, 18 Nov 2016 13:59:47 +0000http://meta4rn.com/?p=2051]]>This post is a companion piece to my oral presentation at the Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control 5th International Conference, 20 -23 November 2016, Pullman & Mercure Melbourne Albert Park. The conference hashtag is #ACIPC16. The function of the online version is to be a collection point to list references/links.

The Prezi is intended as an oral presentation, so I do not intend to include a full description of the content here.

Regular visitors to meta4RN.com will recognise some familiar themes. Let’s not call it self-plagiarism (such an ugly term), I would rather think of it as a new, funky remix of a favourite old song. Due to this remixing of old content I’ve included lots of previous meta4RN.com blog posts on the reference list (which, in turn, makes the reference list look stupidly self-referential). Anyway, with that embarrassing disclosure, here is the abstract and list of references for the Prezi https://prezi.com/fcjda3fh9etr/twitter-is-a-vector

Communication is an inherent part of being a health professional. Over time we have our adapted to the communication technologies available to us: telephones, fax machines, emails and videoconferencing. Yet, for some of us, there seems to be hesitation to use one of the technologies of our time – social media – in a similarly confident manner.

Perhaps you have heard a health professional say something like, “Twitter doesn’t interest me – I don’t care what Justin Bieber had for breakfast.” Those people speak that way because they don’t have a clear understanding of the difference between personal, official and professional use of Twitter.

This presentation is a blatant hard-sell regarding professional use of social media. Examples of professional use of Twitter being used to augment education, conferences, health promotion, academia and the profile of health professionals will be presented.

Please use the conference hashtag – #ACIPC16 – if live-Tweeting during this presentation.

Finally, a big thank you to the Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control 2016 conference organisers for inviting me to #ACIPC16. Special thanks to the Chair of the Scientific Committee Brett Mitchell (aka @1healthau on Twitter).

Below is a metaphor I heard in 1994 via an impressive man called Greg Holland. Greg is retired now, but when I met him he was a CNC with a public community mental health service. Even after all the years that have followed, Greg remains one of the most skilled communicators and mental health nurses I’ve ever worked with.

Greg was talking with a couple of young fellas who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Greg was explaining the importance of trying to avoid relapses of psychosis. The key messages for these young blokes was to keep taking the prescribed medications, and stay away from things that make psychosis more likely: things like cannabis, amphetamines or heaps of alcohol. That’s when Greg used this metaphor (his verbal version was shorter than my written version, but the general story is the same):

If you accidentally broke your leg skateboarding or playing football, you’d have to have your leg in plaster for about 6 weeks. You would have to be really careful with it during that time, and it would probably get really uncomfortable and itchy most days. Then, if there were no complications, after 6 weeks you’d be able to get the plaster cast off, and start building up your strength in that broken leg. A physio might recommend some exercises, but you probably wouldn’t get back to playing football or skateboarding for a few months. Rehabilitation takes a bit of time and effort, but as a young fit man you’ll make a full recovery. No worries.

If you broke the same leg again, it might be more of a big deal. You might need surgery, and they might need to strengthen the bone with steel plates or rods and screws. Sometimes people need to have external fixation: metal devices that are screwed into the bones, but sit outside the body, above the skin to stabilise the fractures. It will be messier, more painful, take longer to get out of hospital, and your leg muscles will get pretty weak. You’ll probably make a full recovery still, but it will just take more time and effort.

If you break your leg a third time, the orthopaedic nurses and doctors are going to think you’re either really unlucky or stupidly reckless. They’ll suggest that you stop skateboarding and playing football altogether. Your leg will get operated on, and the fractures will get stabilised, but the recovery will be really slow. You could end-up with a bit of a limp.

If you keep on breaking the same leg over and over again, say five, six, seven times, you will definitely end up with a limp. Might need a walking stick or something.

If you break the same leg often enough and bad enough you’ll probably end up lame: permanently disabled and unable to walk. You’ll wish you’d listened to the orthopaedic nurses and doctors, and had never gone back to skateboarding or playing football.

It’s kind of the same with psychosis.

If you lose touch with reality once or twice you’ll probably make a full recovery.

But if you keep on having psychotic episodes your brain might develop a bit of a “limp” – it will still work, but not as good as it used to work.

If you have lots of psychotic episodes you might end up disabled and unable enjoy life to the fullest. You’ll wish you’d never gone back to smoking gunja or getting pissed.

That’s why I’m working with you to prevent or cut down on psychotic relapses. Does that make sense to you?

I really like the broken leg/psychosis metaphor. I use a shortened version of the above script a fair bit at work, and people usually respond well to it. I’m very grateful to Greg Holland for introducing the analogy to me. It’s a good metaphor that I hope that others will find useful to use/adapt in their clinical practice too.

]]>https://meta4rn.com/2016/11/17/leg/feed/0meta4rnSource: http://lifeinthefastlane.com/getting-a-leg-over/Source: http://lifeinthefastlane.com/collections/eponymous-fractures/Source: https://my.cqu.edu.au/documents/1708399/3223517/Making+QLD+History/fcf78557-cabe-4f65-a808-1461044445bcWhy on earth would a Mental Health Nurse bother with Twitter? (my #ACMHN2016 presentation)https://meta4rn.com/2016/10/21/acmhn2016/
https://meta4rn.com/2016/10/21/acmhn2016/#respondThu, 20 Oct 2016 23:10:37 +0000http://meta4rn.com/?p=2023]]>This post is a companian piece to my oral presentation at the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses 42nd International Mental Health Nursing Conference, 25 – 27 October 2016, Adelaide Convention Centre (the conference hashtag is #ACMHN2016). The function of the online version is to be a collection point to list references.

The Prezi is intended as an oral presentation, so I do not intend to include a full description of the content here.

Regular visitors to meta4RN.com will recognise some familiar themes. Let’s not call it self-plagarism (such an ugly term), I would rather think of it as a new, funky remix of a favourite old song. Due to this remixing of old content I’ve included previous meta4RN.com blog posts on the reference list (which, in turn, makes the reference list look stupidly self-referential).

Have you ever heard someone say something like, “Twitter doesn’t interest me – I don’t care what Justin Bieber had for breakfast”? Those people speak that way because they don’t understand the difference between personal, official and professional use of Twitter or social media more generally. Data will be presented about nurses using Twitter in a constructive, professional way, with the aim of allaying the fears of those in the pre-contemplation phase, and encouraging those in the contemplation and action phases. In recognition of nursing being a predominantly female profession, a feminist argument will be introduced that aligns the use of social media with empowerment. It will be argued that Twitter can enable and ennoble mental health nurses to engage with people beyond the “walled gardens” of our work silos, our profession, and our conference. Participants will be encouraged to have their mobile phone/tablet/laptop turned on and in use during the presentation, in the hope that we will have a shared conversation on the subject. Why on earth would a mental health nurse bother with Twitter? Answers and challenges will be available to those who attend this presentation and/or follow the conference hashtag #ACMHN2016.

New South Wales Nurses and Midwives Association [nswnma]. (2014, July 30). Women now have unmediated access to public conversation via social media for 1st time in history @JaneCaro #NSWNMAconf14 #destroythejoint [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/nswnma/status/494313737575096321

]]>https://meta4rn.com/2016/10/21/acmhn2016/feed/0meta4rnhttps://prezi.com/9d-n-y688txt/why-on-earth-would-a-mental-health-nurse-bother-with-twitter/#abstractsLearn about Obesity (and Twitter) via Nurses Tweeting at a Conferencehttps://meta4rn.com/2016/10/15/obesity/
https://meta4rn.com/2016/10/15/obesity/#respondSat, 15 Oct 2016 00:16:17 +0000http://meta4rn.com/?p=2011]]>If you read this I guarantee that you will learn 4 things in 5 minutes:

“What can mental health nurses learn from the amazing story of a catholic patron saint?” was initially submitted as an #ACMHN2016 oral presentation, but accepted as a conference poster. So, instead of updating and reworking the YouTube presentation (as I had planned), I started again. I’m not sure that the poster meets the brief (well, abstract) as well as an oral presentation would have, but anyway…

Abstract

Mental health nursing has a long tradition of story-telling as a tool for developing relationships, undertaking mental state assessment and informing clinical practice. This presentation aims to add to mental health nursing’s discourse about “how we do business”, and add another layer of cultural diversity to our narrative and identity. A review of the literature regarding a catholic patron saint called Dymphna has been undertaken. This will be summarised and presented in a manner in keeping with philosopher Alain de Botton’s proposal that religious teachings should not be trusted to the religious alone – they can be re-purposed and re-mixed to inform atheists too. The historical and mystical story of a 7th century European teenage martyr and saint will be aligned to 21st century Australian language and values. Dymphna’s tale takes unexpected twists and turns which will raise questions about Australia’s appetite for innovative models of mental health care, and whether more could be done to promote mental health nursing as a profession and an identity. This presentation will appeal to those interested in consumer-focused mental health care, innovative alternatives to mainstream care, celebrating mental health nursing, and amazing stories.

In an effort to engage conference delegates in the story of Dymphna, the poster has been made in a colourful quasi-comic style. At time of writing this (a fortnight before the conference starts), I feel a bit anxious that someone will misinterpret the effort to visually engage people as trivialising the subject. This is a bit of a worry, because Dymphna’s story includes nasty stuff, not the least of which includes threatened incest, family violence and two people being beheaded. Even Donald Trump would know that these are not topics to be trivialised.

Although I don’t treat Dymphna’s story with the same reverence as The Pope, I do hold the stories I learnt as a catholic schoolboy with a nostalgic affection. My telling of Dymphna’s story is through the prism of a happily-lapsed-catholic, and with the words of Kirsch [see reference list above] ringing in my ears: “This narrative is without any historical foundation, being merely a variation of the story of the king who wanted to marry his own daughter, a motif which appears frequently in popular legends.” Dymphna’s amazing story is a centuries-old remix of a made-up myth. It’s not the news.

Suicide is a complex matter that does not lend itself to easy understanding or simple solutions. However, something we know about health professionals is that they know that there are mental health services and supports. Health professionals know that these services can be accessed by people who who are feeling suicidal. The data suggests that health professionals have an actual or perceived barrier to accessing these existing supports. I wonder what that barrier is.

Stigma?

Could it be that nurses, midwives and medical professionals suicide at a greater rate than the other occupations because of actual or perceived stigma? We have the peculiar privilege of providing care for strangers who are/have been suicidal, but perhaps we aren’t so good at extending that nurturing care to ourselves and each other.

I have a suggestion for health professionals. If you ever come across a colleague who says something derogatory or stigmatising about a person experiencing mental health problems or suicidality, politely show them the data,. Save the chart above to your phone and show them that suicide is a bigger problem for nurses, midwives and female medical professionals than it is for people in other occupations. Say something like, “Suicide is an important issue for our colleagues too. Let’s both care for this patient like we would like to be cared for.”

You’re very welcome to share the chart above or this blog post with your colleagues – the short URL is https://meta4RN.com/stigma

Hopefully, sometime down the track, the data will result in targeted support for the prevention of suicide by health professionals. However, we need not wait for our political masters, health bureaucracies and professional organisations before we walk-the-walk and talk-the-talk of fighting stigma.

If we see mental health/suicide stigma we should address it on the spot.

In the words of Lieutenant General David Morrison, “The standard you walk past, is the standard you accept.” As the data shows, it is dangerous for nurses, midwives, medical professionals and other health professionals to accept stigma.

Support

It’s important to acknowledge that talking and thinking about suicide can be distressing. People in Australia can access support via:

Every Australian undergraduate nurse is introduced to mental health and undertaking mental state examinations/assessments. However, only about one in every twenty nurses will specialise in working in mental health. For the majority of nurses (ie: those not working in mental health) undertaking a mental state assessment can often become a forgotten skill. This, in turn, deskills the nurse and disadvantages the patient – it’s not holistic care if mental health isn’t considered along with the medical/surgical/maternal aspects of care. As the adage says: there is no health without mental health.

If you’re not accustomed to incorporating mental state examinations (MSE) into your everyday role, it can feel a bit intimidating. Nurses I’ve worked with sometimes feel that they’re not adequately equipped to assess someone’s mental state. Of course they are – as long as they have a bit of emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self-regulation, social skills, empathy and motivation), and break down mental state examination to the three core skills that Jenni Bryant identified in her original powerpoint presentation: looking, listening and asking (adapted, online version available via www.slideshare.net/paulmcnamara).

This online version is in response to a few people requesting to have a print-friendly version (here: MSE), and/or something they’ll always have “in their pocket”, via internet-connected smartphones. The meta4RN.com website readily acknowledges that .edu and .gov websites have more credibility. However, many of those websites are not device-agnostic, so don’t render as well as meta4RN.com does on smartphones and tablets.

It’s a good habit to document a brief MSE for all your patients, not just those with a diagnosed mental illness. Mental state can and does change over a shift, day or week – it’s important to notice and communicate changes.

A comprehensive mental state assessment will include a full history: medical history, psychiatric history, medication history and personal history (developmental, relationship, education, employment, social). As history is static, there is no need to make this part of your “everyday” regular MSE.

A MSE is a snapshot as the person as they are at the time. A well-documented MSE conveys this impression for the reader. Using non-judgemental language, direct quotes of what the person says, and finding the right descriptors/adjectives makes for good MSE documentation. No need to worry about sentence construction. Dot points are fine.

Continuity
the capacity to maintain a normal progression from one stream of thought to the next: over-inclusive, poverty, circumstantial, perservation or blocking?

Form
assess for abnormalities of form of speech, not form of thought eg stammer/stutter, dysarthia, expressive or receptive aphasia.

Clarity

Accent

Affect(Looking)

An objective assessment of facial and bodily expression of mood state.
Is affect appropriate to content? (congruent)
Assess the range, appropriateness, intensity and quality of affect
Rapid shift from one emotive response to another? (lability)

A subjective assessment of mood state:
How has your mood been lately?
How do you feel within yourself?
What has given you happiness, joy or enjoyment recently?
Are you a good person?
Have you been feeling guilty or sad?
If 10 is as good as you ever feel and 0 is as low as you go, where on the scale have you been over the last couple of weeks?

Contentdelusions, obsessions, compulsions, suicidal ideation, phobias, paranoia, preoccupations?
Do you feel safe here/at home?
Are you able to project your thoughts onto others?
Are other people able to insert ideas/thoughts into your head?

Perception(Looking, Listening & Asking)

Hallucinations = false sensory perception that occurs in the absence of a stimulus.
Can affect any of the senses:
Auditory
Visual
Olfactory
Tactile
Gustatory
Have you been experiencing any unusual sensations that you can’t easily explain?
Do you any special powers?
Sometimes when people are really stressed they hear voices/noises, but there’s nobody there. Has that ever happened to you?
You seem distracted by something I can’t see. Can you help me understand what you’re experiencing?

Ideas/delusions of reference
Do you have any unusual experiences when watching TV, or listening to music?
Do you ever feel that the TV has special messages just for you?

Illusion = misinterpretation of sensory stimulus
eg: responding to a pyjama top on a chair as if it were a cat; being startled by something out the corner of their eye.

Cognition(Asking & Listening)

Orientation
time, place, person, situation
Memory
Concentration
Attention
Clock Drawing Test [brief frontal lobe assessment]
please draw a large circle, then insert numbers to make it look like a clock.
now draw in the hands to show ten past eleven

MMSE: Mini Mental State Examination
– screening [ie: not diagnostic] tool for cognitive impairment – best for mild to moderate
– does not differentiate between delirium and dementia
– used to detect impairment, to follow course of illness, to monitor treatment response
– affected by education, intelligence, age, literacy, culture and inter-rater reliability

Insight & Judgement(Asking & Listening)Insight = to see one’s self as others do
Judgement = capacity to make reasoned decisions

Does the person recognise symptoms (eg: confusion, hallucinations) as symptoms?
Is the person aware that they are ill and understand the effects and implications?
Is the person seeking assistance/information or rejecting help?
Good, partial or poor? As evidenced by…

Risk(Asking & Listening)

Estimation of risk will be influenced by the person’s history (ie: previous experiences, behaviours and exposures) – the static factors.

Risk is best explored after rapport has been established, and the person knows that you are a safe, non-judgemental person. If somebody discloses intent/plans of harming themselves or others, thank them for trusting you, and let them know that it is too important a matter for just the two of you to handle alone. You’ll arrange for support.

The suggested questions below are for dynamic, “here and now”, factors only

Risk to SelfDo you still have “the fighting spirit”?
Do you ever think, “what’s the point in going on?”
What’s keeping you going?, what makes life worth living?
Have you thought you would be better off dead? How strong are these thoughts?
Have you thought of suicide?
Have you made a plan? [if “yes”, does the person have access to means?]
When would you do this?
What can I do to help you to stay safe?

Risk to OthersYou seem pretty angry.
Are you able to express that anger safely?
Do you feel like acting on that anger?
Do you feel like hurting someone?
Are you safe to be around at the moment?
Am I safe with you? What about the other staff and patients here?
What can I do to help you to stay safe?

Alcohol, Tobacco & Other Drugs(Asking & Listening)

Most substance abuse is contextual
Give “permission” for honest answers

“Sounds like you’ve had a lot of stress lately. How have you been coping?”
“You’ve got a lot of stuff going on at the moment… are you drinking or smoking more than usual?”
“In FNQ plenty of people use the bottle shop or a bit of choof or speed to try to manage stress. How about you?”

So, to answer the question, I’m sharing my CV online. The version I want you to look at is here as a PDF (updated on 23/11/16):

Why do I want you to look at that version? It is because I’ve spent time formatting it to look pretty. Prettier than I can manage on this website. However, I thought I might as well dump the content of the CV on this page too – it’s nice to have more options than those that LinkedIn accommodates.

I won’t pretend for a moment that this is the ideal way to write a CV. In fact, I know I’ve been over-inclusive on mine – it’s far too long (not just a problem of being a nurse from the 80s). However, the headings may be useful to somebody, even if that somebody is @BoxedUpHeart alone. So, with no further ado, here goes:

McNamara, P. (2016) Using Twitter in your profession (aka Twitter is a Vector*). Invited presentation at 5th International Conference, Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control, Melbourne.

McNamara, P. (2016) What can mental health nurses learn from the amazing story of a catholic patron saint? Poster presentation at ‘Nurses striving to tackle disparity in health care’, 42nd Annual International Conference of the Australian College of Mental Health Nursing, Adelaide.

McNamara, P. (2016) Why on earth would a Mental Health Nurse bother with Twitter? Presented at ‘Nurses striving to tackle disparity in health care’, 42nd Annual International Conference of the Australian College of Mental Health Nursing, Adelaide.

Happell, B., Wilson, R. & McNamara, P. (2013) Beyond bandaids: Defending the depth and detail of mental health in nursing education. Presented at ‘Collaboration and partnerships in mental health nursing, the 39th Annual International Conference of the Australian College of Mental Health Nursing, Perth.

McNamara, P. (2013) Turbocharging mental health nursing collaboration and partnerships: professional use of Twitter. Poster presented at ‘Collaboration and partnerships in mental health nursing, the 39th Annual International Conference of the Australian College of Mental Health Nursing, Perth.

McNamara, P. (2012) The nature of nurture: lessons from a baby, story of a saint. Opening plenary presentation at the 10th ACMHN Consultation Liaison Special Interest Group conference, Melbourne.

McNamara, P. (2011) Between the flags, but beyond the breakers; addressing perinatal mental health in calmer, deeper water. Presented at ‘Mental health nurses: swimming between the flags?’, the 37th Annual International Conference of the Australian College of Mental Health Nursing, Gold Coast.

Trott, R. & McNamara, P. (2011) Mental health interventions targeted at youth. Presented at ‘Nurturing, Providing, Gathering for Better Health’, the 2nd Indigenous Women’s Health Meeting of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG), Cairns.

Ryan, T., McNamara, P., Swain, T. & Brownlie, A. (2010) Playing nicely in the north: Developing clinical supervision in and for North Queensland. Presented at the 11th Annual Tropical Symposium of the North Queensland Branch of Australian College of Mental Health Nurses, Magnetic Island.

Casella, E. & McNamara, P. (2015) The use of Social Media in Nursing., Australian College of Nurses workshop, James Cook University, Cairns research.jcu.edu.au/cnmr/news-and-events/news/hits-for-nurses

Master of Mental Health Nursing 2006
University of Southern Queensland– High Distinction in all graded subjects; Grade Point Average (GPA) = 7.0– Australian College of Mental Health Nurses (Queensland Branch), Student Award for Clinical and Academic Achievement in Mental Health Nursing

Bachelor of Nursing 1993 to 1995
Flinders University of South Australia– six subjects awarded Distinction & one High Distinction; GPA = 5.86

Graduate Nurse Certificate 1992 to 1993
Royal Adelaide Hospital
– a twelve month course to consolidate abilities in team management and clinical practice

Registered General Nurse Certificate 1988 to 1991
Royal Adelaide Hospital
– a three year course which provided the opportunity to apply theory in practice across a diverse range of speciality inpatient units

Employment History

Clinical Nurse Consultant
July 2015 – current
June 2013 – November 2014
July 2000 – August 2010
Consultation Liaison Psychiatry Service
Cairns & Hinterland Hospital & Health Service (based at Cairns Hospital)– demonstrated professional leadership re mental health care in the general hospital setting– significant contribution to the development of this role: it has become a highly respected & – valued component of Cairns Hospital’s multidisciplinary approach to care– negotiated highly effective inter-department & inter-agency referral relationships– proven capacity for innovation and a proactive approach to problem resolution– contributions to the development of CL practice at state & national levels– regular provision of inservice/staff education– co-facilitation of QMCHL clinical supervision workshops– regular provision of clinical supervision

Lecturer in Nursing
August 2008 – July 2009
School of Nursing, Midwifery & Nutrition
James Cook University of North Queensland– Subject Coordinator for NS1211 Foundations of Nursing 1 (a 1st year undergraduate subjectthat had over 250 students enrolled in 2009, across four campuses and externally)– developed, delivered and recruited guest lecturers for a program of lectures delivered via videoconference to campuses in Cairns, Townsville, Mount Isa & Thursday Island– developed and delivered podcasts and slidecasts of lectures via the subject website– created and maintained a dynamic subject website for student and staff access to subjectmaterials, discussion boards, grades and announcements– developed and implemented a tutorial guide for the eight tutors teaching into this subject– developed and implemented an assignment marking guide to promote inter-rater reliability– elected to the School’s Strategic Planning Committee– lectures and tutorials for mental health, crisis management and grief/communication subjects

Tutor/Laboratory Leader/OSCE Assessor
casual contracts: 2002 – 2003, 2005 – 2010
School of Nursing, Midwifery & Nutrition
James Cook University of North Queensland– deliver components of the undergraduate nursing degree curriculum using a range of teaching methods – utilised small group work in a tertiary, adult education setting – assessment of written assignments, acquired skills and learning participation – student appraisal of my teaching was overwhelmingly positive

Youth Health Nurse (Clinical Nurse)
1999 – 2000
School-Based Youth Health Nurse Program
Cairns District Community Health (based at Cairns High & Yarrabah State Schools)– established this newly created position – attracted appropriate resources, including recruiting & establishing clinical supervision – demonstrated capacity to across sectors with a broad range of people – delivering health promotion and curriculum support including an educative role

Student Nurse
1988 – 1991
Royal Adelaide Hospital– experiential learning across a broad range of medical, surgical and speciality units– as per the orthodoxy of hospital-based nurse education in a large teaching hospital, mentored student nurse peers and juniors

As I said in the intro, this isn’t necessarily the way to present a nursing CV, but it’s an example you might be able get some ideas from. Do you have any suggestions re a nursing CV? If so, please feel free to share them via the comments section below.